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18 Is Mt. Sinai the Mountain of YEHOVAH?

The Arabians are called 'sons of Hagar' in Baruch 3:23, while the Hagarenes (or
Hagarites -- both in AV) are frequently mentioned in connection with the ARAB
PEOPLES TO THE EAST AND SOUTH OF PALESTINE.

E.G., Ps.83:6,7, "Edom and Israel, Moab and the HAGARENES, Gebal [= the Arabic
plural jibal, 'mountains,' still the name of the mountainous region south of the Dead Sea],
and Ammon and Amalek." 'Hagarene may have served as a general name of the Arabs for
the Jews with reminiscence of the concubine Hagar....identification of Hagar and
Hagarenes has been made with the AGRAIOI OF PTOLEMY, OF STRABO, ETC., IN
NW ARABIA; but this important people must be connected with Al-Hijr in the
Thamudene country [of NW Arabia], the region of El-Ula....(University of Pennsylvania
Press, Philadelphia. 1934. Pp. 34-35).

The Land of Midian

Some "authorities" have claimed that the land of Midian included the Sinai peninsula and
the area of the traditional Mt. Sinai. Can this be true? Just WHERE was the geographical area called
Midian?

Werner Keller makes the location clear:

Moses does what Sinuhe had done before him. He flees eastward to get out of Egyptian
territory. Since Canaan is occupied by Egypt, Moses chooses for his exile the mountains of
Midian EAST OF THE GULF OF AQABAH, with which he had a remote connection.
Ketura had been Abraham's second wife, after Sarah's death (Gen.25:1). One of her sons
was called Midian. The tribe of Midian is often called KENITES in the Old Testament
(Num.24:21). The name means "belonging to the coppersmiths" -- QAIN in Arabic,
QAINAYA in Aramaic = a SMITH. This designation connects up with the presence of
METAL in the neighbourhood of the tribal territory. The mountain ranges EAST OF THE
GULF OF AQABAH are rich in copper, as the investigations of Nelson Glueck of America
have indicated (The Bible as History. William Morrow & Co. Inc. New York. 1981. P.
123).

This location of Midian EAST of the Gulf of Aqaba is verified by many other scholars. "The
Biblical references connecting SINAI with Mount Seir, Edom and the LAND OF MIDIAN seem
clearly to indicate this region EAST OF THE AELANITIC GULF (e.g. of AKABA) as pointed out
by Beke (1834), Wallhausen (1886), Sayce (1894), Moore (1895), Shede (1897), Gall (1898),
Gunkel (1903), Edward Meyer (1906), Schmidt (1908), Gressmann (1913), Haupt (1914) and by
Alois Musil in 'The Northern Hegaz' (1911)" (On the Track of the Exodus, p.87).

Not only that, but the area WEST of the Gulf of Aqaba has ALWAYS been Egyptian terri-
tory -- even up to this present day! Author James Montgomery points out that "the land west of a
line from the wady of Egypt to the Elanitic Gulf [Gulf of Aqaba] has always belonged to the Egyp-
tian political sphere, and actually that is the present boundary of Egypt....the south-Arabians called
the SAME REGION MSR, i.e. MISRAIM, EGYPT" (Arabia and the Bible, p.31).

The Berean Voice September-October 2002